Saturday, 30 May 2009

I am luckily in the process of studying Persuasion ... how can it be work?! I am also mid-way through preparations for an upcoming Shakespeare exam, so I had to seize on this weeks' quote. It's from Persuasion, chapter 11. Anne is in Lyme, and is entertaining Benwick:

For, though shy, he did not seem reserved; it had rather the appearance of feelings glad to burst their usual restraints; and having talked of poetry, the richness of the present age, and gone through a brief comparison of opinion as to the first-rate poets, trying to ascertain whether Marmion or The Lady of the Lake were to be preferred, and how ranked the Giaour and The Bride of Abydos; and moreover, how the Giaour was to be pronounced, he showed himself so intimately acquainted with all the tenderest songs of the one poet, and all the impassioned descriptions of hopeless agony of the other; he repeated, with such tremulous feeling, the various lines which imaged a broken heart, or a mind destroyed by wretchedness, and looked so entirely as if he meant to be understood, that she ventured to hope he did not always read only poetry, and to say, that she thought it was the misfortune of poetry to be seldom safely enjoyed by those who enjoyed it completely; and that the strong feelings which alone could estimate it truly were the very feelings which ought to taste it but sparingly.

This is a very different type of quote for me, and I love it ... Anne is a magnificently constructed character - I wouldn't mind having her for a friend! (In the flesh, anyway.) I believe the power of poetry lies in its ability to say so much, in so few words. I love Anne's thoughts, regarding poetry and Benwick: all good things in moderation. The dangers of too much inward literary excess??

One of my greatest pleasures in life is finding my soul in anothers' written words. Sometimes it's poetry, sometimes a play, a diary, a novel. It would be ideal for this communion through words to have an outward equivalent, but sometimes life doesn't provide for that. At any rate, I love Anne's thoughts, and I'm going to continue dwelling on them. Brilliant novel.

Saturday, 23 May 2009

Jane Austen has a very unique advice for family planning! But of course; knowing well that excessive number of children did not bode well with family’s prosperity, particularly if they were poor. Well, or at least she was clever enough to suggest a simple method of family planning, in a dark time where healthy birth control was unheard of. This is from a letter where she was talking about a Mrs. Deedes giving birth to another child:

I would recommend to her and Mr D. the simple regimen of separate rooms.

LOL! I say: laugh out loud! What a witty woman! Makes me wonder why they never thought of having a decent family planning program in ye olde days. Perhaps due to lack of hygienic technology...

By the way, the quote was taken from Jane’s letter to Fanny Knight, 20-21 February 1817, a few months before Jane’s own death. Obviously, she still retained her sense of humour. Oh, and I snatched the quote from Dominique Enright’s very interesting compilation of ‘The Wicked Wit of Jane Austen’, p. 114. Amazing read, truly.

Pic: four cute children are already rather unmanageable. How about 8 or 10? Yeah, these are Victorian children, not Georgian... From this site

Friday, 15 May 2009

Let us take a look at the happy ending in the final paragraph of Pride and Prejudice:

With the Gardiners, they were always on the most intimate terms. Darcy, as well as Elizabeth, really loved them; and they were both ever sensible of the warmest gratitude towards the persons who, by bringing her into Derbyshire, had been the means of uniting them.

What I gather from this is that we should be grateful for all events in our lives because we never know which event may result in something good (that we would wish for). We take the good with the bad.

Alas, we may even learn a lesson from the bad. To top that, a strange thing happened on the way home while listening to the radio. A song came on and the few words I heard made my ears perk up. The words were: Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers. The song was by Garth Brooks named “Unanswered Prayers”. Those particular words were in reference to the fact that in his youth he had prayed for a special girl at school and it didn’t happen. Instead he ended up with his most beloved wife for which he thanked God for his ‘unanswered prayer’.

So you see, we cannot be certain about the outcome of the good/bad events of our lives. ‘Tis best left to the Higher Power.

In the first of an exciting series of How to Read courses from the Faber Academy, John Mullan will lead you through the intriguing minutiae of Austen’s fiction, believing that the closer you look, the more you see.

Virginia Woolf said that ‘of all great writers she [Austen] is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness’, but catching this act is our purpose. We will examine the content of her novels – her interest in courtship, or money, or impoliteness – but also at how she writes. The classes are designed to help readers recognise the audacity of some of Austen's narrative techniques and see that this genteel and conservative woman was a great innovator in the art of fiction. Quite simply, this is a day for those who love Jane Austen’s novels.

The day will take place at the beautiful Georgian offices of independent publisher, Faber and Faber, and there are no hard and fast criteria for attendance, save the following:To have read Jane Austen’s novelsTo come with a lively, open mindTo ask interesting questions and be prepared to have your opinions challenged

John Mullan is Professor of English at University College London. He is the author of How Novels Work (OUP) and Sentiment and Sociability: The Language of Feeling in the Eightenth Century (OUP). He has published widely on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature. A broadcaster and journalist as well as an academic, he writes a weekly column on contemporary fiction for The Guardian.

About Faber

Faber and Faber is the last of the great independent publishing houses in London. We were established in 1929 by Geoffrey Faber and our first editor was T. S. Eliot. Among our list of authors we are proud to publish five Booker Prize winners and eleven Nobel Laureates. We are particularly well-known for our unrivalled list of modern poets and playwrights, as well as for publishing writers of prize-winning fiction and general non-fiction. More (link to www.faber.co.uk)

If any of you do decide to take up this wonderful offer then please do ensure that you let all of us know your comments and thoughts on your experience.

Thanks again Ali for providing us with the information. For any of you that cant make this course (like me! Sob sob!), I did ask Ali whether any other similar courses may be repeated later in the year. She said that if they have the interest and many people sign up for this one then that may well be the case. I will keep you posted......

Saturday, 9 May 2009

"Oh! I know nothing of your furlongs, but I am sure it is a very long wood, and that we have been winding in and out ever since we came into it; and therefore, when I say that we have walked a mile in it, I must speak within compass."

"We have been exactly a quarter of an hour here," said Edmund, taking out his watch. "Do you think we are walking four miles an hour?"

"Oh! do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch."

A few steps farther brought them out at the bottom of the very walk they had been talking of; and standing back, well shaded and sheltered, and looking over a ha-ha into the park, was a comfortable-sized bench, on which they all sat down.

This is taken from chapter 9 of the novel and is spoken by Mary Crawford (this antagonist gets all the best lines!) Mary Crawford, Fanny Price and Edmund Bertram are taking a walk in the wood and Mary and Edmund are debating the distance in which they have walked.

Mary is a very skeptical character and I think that there is some depth to this line (in bold). I might be completely wrong in my stance so please do correct me if you think I am.

I think that Jane Austen has some very philosophical thinking and is highly aware of not only the people, but the society and philosophy of her time. I think that we can see examples of this in her novels, i.e. my chosen quote of the week. I think that this line is questioning the concept of truth and certainty; highly philosophical principles. I love it.

I would really like to explore more of her lines to analyse them and wonder whether she sometimes did have a philosophical purpose when she was writing........

Saturday, 2 May 2009

Rachel posted a beautiful quote from Emma last week, and in honour of the recent news about filiming of Emma 2009, I have chosen to quote from the same novel this week.

Emma & her family are en route to the Weston's Christmas Party, and she falls into discussion with her brother-in-law, John Knightley. He 'slyly' suggests that Mr Elton 'seems to have a great deal of good-will' towards Emma. She replies:

'I thank you; but I assure you you are quite mistaken. Mr Elton and I are very good friends, and nothing more,' and she walked on, amusing herself in the consideration of the blunders which often arise from a partial knowledge of circumstances, of the mistakes which people of high pretensions to judgment are for ever falling into; and not very well pleased with her brother for imagining her blind and ignorant, and in want of counsel. He said no more.

Emma, Chapter 13

I love the irony here. John Knightley is of course, correct, and Emma herself is missing the obvious signs in front of her. I love how we can convince ourselves of 'the truth' around us, misinterpreting other's motivations through the filter of our own desires.

Besides the irony (and fairly good summary of Emma), I love this quote because once again Miss Austen hits the proverbial nail on the head. '...she walked on, amusing herself in the consideration of the blunders which often arise from a partial knowledge of circumstances...' I can't count the number of times I have leapt to premature judgements which at best have been embarrassing and at worst ... well, acutely embarrassing! (and harmful, etc). 'Partial knowledge of circumstances' is a very curious state-of-being. Hmm. I need to keep thinking on this one. There is a lot in this little sentence, isn't there?!

Last November we blogged about rumours that the BBC were producing a mini-series of Emma for 2009. I am embarrassed to admit that I forgot about this project (yes, I know! my fave. Austen, too) but after googling Austen during the week, discovered that Emma 2009 is currently filming!

Ironically enough some of these faces are not Austenly-unfamiliar: Johnny Lee Miller (Knightley) was Edmund Bertram in Mansfield Park 1999, and Blake Ritson (Elton) was Edmund Bertram in MP 2007. Christina Cole played Caroline Bingley in Lost in Austen.

It looks like it'll be four parts, 240 minutes, with a release date of October 2009.

So ... opinions?? It's a pretty 'young and sexy' lineup, I think. I'm a bit deflated by Garai as Emma to tell the truth, for I don't really like her as an actress, but I think she was marvelous in Atonement. Johnny Lee Miller? Couldn't believe it at first, but I am very curious. I love Michael Gambon. Not too hot on the look. The hair scares me. But still, more Austen to look forward too! (Should I say now that Beckinsale's Emma is my favourite?)

Welcome to "Becoming Jane" Fansite!

This site is co-managed by Icha and Rachel with materials from many resources, particularly supplied by Linda, our Associate Librarian, and our co-admin Mariana.

If you have any articles or information about Jane Austen, Tom Lefroy, or Becoming Jane (or even just to say hello), please email Icha and Rachel. As long as the content rhymes with our purpose to promote the movie and fandom, we will post it here happily. Also, please sign the Radovici Petition to reprint Radovici's book on Jane and Tom.

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About Jane Austen

Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775 in Steventon, Hampshire.In 1789 she wrote her first novel, Love and Freindship (intentional mis-spell), amongst other very amusing juvenilia. In Dec 1795/Jan 1796, she met Thomas Langlois Lefroy, an Irishman who would often be considered an important part of her life. In 1811, Austen's first novel Sense and Sensibility was published anonymously ('By a Lady'). Pride and Prejudice was published in 1813 and received instant popularity. Despite her romantic novels, the writer herself never married. In early 1816, Austen suffered an illness (either Addison's or Hodgkin's Disease), and on 18 July 1817, she died at the age of forty-one in the arms of her sister, Cassandra, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral.

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Anne Hathaway’s skilful portrayal of Jane Austen in Becoming Jane shows that art can have as much power to bring us closer to the truth as facts themselves can.

Jon Spence, 4 December 2006, Becoming Jane Austen

I could certainly see why Jane would have been attracted to Tom Lefroy if he was anything like this portrayal by James McAvoy!

Sue Hughes, March 2007, Jane Austen's Regency World Magazine

McAvoy knew his portrait of Tom could only come alive with the right Jane, and he found Anne Hathaway almost supernaturally suited for the part. “I don’t think we could have chosen anyone better to play Jane Austen," he says.

Synopsis of 'Becoming Jane'

Jane Austen’s greatest love story was her own

It was at the end of 1795 when the young Jane Austen met the dashing Irish rogue Thomas Langlois Lefroy. Jane would not realise that from prejudice and innuendos between her and Tom, a fresh bud of passion would grow into love that would last for years to come, literally changing her way of looking into life and giving her new insights into her already blooming creative writing. Yet, Tom Lefroy was not a man of wealth, and thus his family needed him to find a more suitable partner than the last daughter of the Austens. Will reality defeat love, or will love triumph in Jane Austen’s life?

James McAvoy as Tom Lefroy, Jane Austen's Regency World Magazine March 2007

Source: the U.S. Official Site

‘I’m yours, Jane, heart and soul!’

~ Tom Lefroy to Jane Austen, ‘Becoming Jane’

Source: www.annie-hathaway.com

Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without affection – JA, 18 November 1814

Source: BBC UK

Nothing can be compared to the misery of being bound without Love, bound to one, & preferring another – JA, 30 November 1814

Source: www.annie-hathaway.com

There could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved...

‘Persuasion’, chapter 8, Jane Austen

If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more ...

Mr. Knightley to Emma in 'Emma', Jane Austen

Source: www.annie-hathaway.com

To be so bent on marriage, to pursue a man merely for the sake of situation – is a sort of thing that shocks me.

Emma Watson, the Watsons, Jane Austen

What value would there be in life if we are not together?

~ Tom Lefroy to Jane Austen, 'Becoming Jane'

Source: Tiscali website

'Irony is the bringing together of contradictory truths to make out of the contradiction a new truth with a laugh or a smile.'

~ Jane Austen, 'Becoming Jane'

Disclaimer

Becoming Jane Fansite is a non-profit site for Becoming Janefans, created to accommodate articles, news, pictures, reviews, fan fictions, comments, etc with regards to the beautifully exclaimed Miramax movie Becoming Jane and anything related to Jane Austen and Tom Lefroy. The site is NOT an official site of 'Becoming Jane' and hence not affiliated with the movie. Yet, we hope that the site helps to immortalise your love and passions to Jane Austen, Tom Lefroy, Becoming Jane, Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julian Jarrold and all crews and casts of the enchanting movie. The administrators reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments/messages.

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The film Becoming Jane has given us an image of Jane Austen that liberates our imagination. I envy readers of my book who come to it with Anne Hathaway’s image of Jane in their mind’s eye. You will not have to struggle against the image Cassandra created to see the Jane Austen who was young and pretty, lively and in love. Anne Hathaway’s skilful portrayal of Jane Austen in Becoming Jane shows that art can have as much power to bring us closer to the truth as facts themselves can.